Features

The thirty-fourth edition of Hillside Music Festival took place over the July 16th weekend. Taking place over three days in the scenic Guelph Island Lake, this edition of the festival holds up with the best acts and lives up to its history of over thirty years. The theme this year at Hillside was resistance.

It is through resistance that we can build stronger communities and stronger bonds. We must resist the lines of thinking that tell us to separate ourselves along gender or racial lines, or that tell us we’re too different to get along.

Australian comedy group and YouTube sensations Aunty Donna took Montreal by storm with their outstanding 3 man variety show at The Mainline Theatre. People from all across Canada came to Montreal to watch Mark Samual Bonanno, Broden Kelly and Zachary Ruane perform their incredible first show in the city. Aunty Donna’s super smooth moves captivated their audiences and it’s no surprise that they made the cover of this week’s Montreal Gazette!

Canada’s sweetheart Debra DiGiovanni made her 9th appearance at The Just For Laughs Festivalwith her hilarious solo show at Place des Arts! DiGiovanni provides her audiences with an energetic hour of delightfully dark, self-deprecating humour. DiGiovanni enthusiastically delivers such vivid, relatable jokes that will make you laugh so hard you’ll cry!

Tranna Wintourand Thomas Leblanc take you on a musical nostalgia trip in Crazy Sexy 90s! Running from July 20th to July 22nd at The Wiggle Room, Crazy Sexy 90s is a queer celebration of the decade’s most beloved female pop stars! Montreal’s favorite 90s purists Wintour and Leblanc pay homage to Janet Jackson, Madonna, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Lil Kim, Gwen Stefani, The Spice Girls and everyone in between in this unforgettable evening.

In honour of tomorrow’s Canada 150 celebration, CJLO will be airing documentaries from the National Campus and Community Radio Association’s Resonating Reconciliation, a project that engages community radio to help reconcile all Canadians with the history of Indian Residential Schools. The broadcast will take place today from 11 AM until 5 PM. The full schedule is posted below.

Montreal’s Fringe Fest can be hectic at times; there’s always so much to see, and every year, I find myself saying things like “I wish I had enough time to see this,” or “I wish I had reserved tickets. I didn’t know it would sell out.” But this year, I tried to see as many shows as possible during the final week of the festival. On the recommendation of Artistic Director Amy Blackmore, I made it my goal to see at least three productions in one day. Of course, it’s hard to remember so many details when you’re running from show-to-show (and the beers at the Fringe Park probably don’t help), so here’s some short-but-sweet reviews of the shows I managed to squeeze into.

There is No I In Fail is “an anti-motivational comedy” about lowering your expectations that is extremely heartwarming and exceeds all expectations! Trent Baumann’s Australian one-man show is one of the most uplifting performances you’ll have the pleasure of seeing at this year’s edition of the Montreal Fringe Festival. With balloons, milk crates, newspaper and an original soundtrack by the lovely Japanese composer Sachie, Baumann will charm you to pieces!

Berlin Waltz is a riveting dance across the city which faced so much controversy and hardship during the Cold War. It is a brilliant, fun story of Devon More’s bike ride along what used to be the Berlin Wall, as she discovered the history of why the wall was put up, what East and West Berlin were like for the 28 years that the city was divided, and why and how the wall fell. Her adventure came to life through her storytelling and her music in this captivating one-woman show.

One Too Many is a two-person play rife with symbolism and inner reflection. It challenges the way we look at excessive alcohol consumption and questions our behaviour once we’ve had one too many drinks. Based on their life and experiences, Evan and Calla confront their own complicated relationships with alcohol and explore their varying alcohol dependencies with the audience. It is a must-see if you want to better understand the struggle of substance abusers.

Having been lucky enough to discuss the play with the artists, I can provide some insight into their thought process, their vision and their message (ATTENTION: spoilers ahead!).

Chinese Opera is an art form which I know very little about. However, like I always say about classical music, you don’t need to know a lot about something to appreciate and enjoy it. Trust me when I say that there is a lot to appreciate and enjoy about the fantastic, funny, incredibly impressive performance put on by Jing Ju Canada.

Lately, I’ve been waking up to feelings of helplessness and nihilism as my clock radio reminds me that I’m living in the age of Trump. I try to calm myself down by turning to the comedic monologues of late night talk shows, but the jokes have become repetitive. It makes me yearn for something with more substance, with more of a human touch. I need something that can stand the test of time, not just dabble in week-to-week politics.

Jazz music, incessant cigarette smoking, murder—this piece of detective fiction has it all! Everything that comes to mind from a murder mystery set in the 20s, right down to the pinstriped suites and showgirls, The Detective, The Dame and The Devil has it. What it also has in addition to your standard detective story staples are lame puns, cheap gags, and running jokes that give the whole show fantastic continuity. It was perfect. Small details revealed at the beginning of the show were easy to pass off as mere silliness, but so often they would tie into the plot in unexpected and incredibly silly ways, making the whole show completely hilarious and impressively well thought out. Throw in some plot twists and we have a winner!

I’ve been to many shows over the years, where walking into the performance space feels like you’re stepping into another world, but not like this. This was more of an experience than a piece of theatre.